Fast-food workers are joining the movement to unionize in protest over low pay. More than 200 workers at Burger King, Wendy's, McDonald's, and other fast-food restaurants recently went on strike in New York -- and organizers say it was just the start of a larger campaign.

Hostess Brands lived to die another day. The maker of Twinkies and Ding Dongs said late Tuesday that it failed to reach an agreement with its second-biggest union. As a result, Hostess will be in court Wednesday asking for a bankruptcy judge for permission to shutter its operations.

Most people only think of Labor Day as a nice excuse for long weekend, the beginning of fall, or the start of football season. But it's actually one of the most controversial American holidays, a celebration of the unionized laborers -- who made America strong.

Organized labor in the U.S. has been under sustained assault for some time; now, unions are fighting back with a major ad campaign designed to improve their image. Problem is, the centerpiece commercial mangles the message -- and misses the point.

With the effective unemployment rate possibly above 16%, the "job-creators" have little incentive to offer robust benefits packages to workers. But a look at U.S. economic history suggests that it's time to revisit the idea that a corporation can remain highly profitable over the long term by providing a floor of economic security for its employees.

In this economy, many Americans feel grateful to have jobs in the first place. The nation's high unemployment rate makes recent video of some of Chrysler's unionized workers drinking and smoking pot on the job all the more galling. It's time for unions to stop protecting slacker employees.

The news across the financial world is good for unions, which will find organizing a bit easier; adequate for Greece, which will find getting bailed out a bit easier, and bitter for JPMorgan which had to accept a $153.6 million SEC fine for misleading investors about a mortgage securities transaction.

A century after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire claimed the lives of 146 seamstresses in New York, worker protections are eroding around the world. As government and corporate interests from Bangladesh to Wisconsin wage war on the rights of labor, have the lessons of the Triangle disaster been forgotten?

Regardless of your political leanings, the struggle for fair wages and collective bargaining is fraught with drama, and Hollywood's union movies have inspired some amazing performances. With the public workers standoff in the news now, here are a few of Tinseltown's best offerings.

A half-dozen Delta Air Lines flight attendants sued the carriers for what they say is discrimination in the form of smaller profit-sharing paychecks for former Northwest Airlines employees, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Despite all the worry over the impact of rising oil prices, recall that the U.S. is now a largely services-based economy, and observe that the rising wages that have led to real overall cost rises in decades past are nowhere to be found today. Exhibit A is in Wisconsin.

Can you say image problem? For the first time in the more than 70 years that Gallup has been measuring the popularity of unions, in 2009 more than half the public didn't approve of them. The current showdown in Wisconsin has plenty of precedent when it comes to transformative moments for organized labor.

American labor unions have been in decline for a half-century now -- and, currently, virtually the only large unions still growing are those in the public sector. Until now. Cash-strapped states are attacking unions where it hurts by trying to strip them of the right to collectively bargain.

Low pay, lack of benefits and other issues drove Ayo Collins and three other Jimmy John's workers to enlist the aid of the Chicago-based Industrial Workers of the World to help organize 10 targeted Minneapolis stores. The effort fell short, by a vote of 87 to 85.

Already passed in the House, the Paycheck Fairness Act would make it easier for women to file pay-discrimination class actions against employers, and it removes caps on punitive damages under the Equal Pay Act. It doesn't solve why women are paid less than men for the same work.

The financial media's coverage of China tends to focus on trade-related topics, but China is undergoing deep cultural shifts that will dramatically alter its economic landscape. These four long-term trends could drastically change China -- and its relationship with the world.

Health care could soon be yesterday's battle. Business groups are now bracing themselves for a new fight in Congress against the growing power of unions. At issue is the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), also known as Card Check, a union-backed proposal that would enable workers to join a union if more than 50% of workers at a facility sign membership cards. A government-mandated arbitrator could enact a contract if the employer and the union don't reach an agreement within 120 days.